Wednesday 29 February 2012

Using free Autodesk 123D Beta to design Shapeways models for 3D printing

I'm excited. Really excited.

The other day I was introduced to the Autodesk 123D Beta. The software is Computer Aided Design [CAD] software that allows you to design 3D models. It's also free to use at the moment... Here's a work in progress I'm working on today:



After a little bit of browsing, I found out about Shapeways. Shapeways is a website that allows you to upload .STL and some other file types containing models you've designed, and get them to print out your design in 3D in various materials, including Plastics, Metals, Ceramics, Sandstone and Glass. The price you pay depends on what price the material is per cubic centimetre, and how much material your model uses up.



Shapeways also allows you to open up a shop of your designs and place a percentage markup on the design. Whenever someone purchases a 3D print out of your design, Shapeways holds this percentage for you and sends it to you at the end of the month.

This means I and all my friends who have 3D modelling skills [CGD, I'm looking at you!], can be uploading model designs for objects for other people around the world to buy on demand.

Essentially, it's a Passive Income Stream. You put the effort in to make one model, upload it, and do some publicity, and there you go. If people want the model, they'll be buying it while you sleep.

Like I said; really excited.


To keep up to date with my new designs and artwork via Facebook, check out my FB Page at CharGyse Art & Design and give it a Like!

Saturday 11 February 2012

Searching for sand paper.


That moment when you've been researching how to cut glass bottles,

and have consumed plenty of Harveys Bristol Cream sherry,
so that you have a nice blue bottle for cutting,

and realise that the rough and fine sand paper you have kept

- in your collection of potentially useful things that never actually see the light of day
(except when you add another potentially useful thing) -

may actually have a use now,

and are searching for it in every place you can remember it being
- while tipsy,

since you've decided you're going to do a trial cut on a spare Desperados bottle

that you just happen to have kicking about although you finished it a long time ago,
- but you are still probably too tipsy to be attempting such things,

when really it would probably be easier to just buy one off the Internet.


But where's the fun in that?

Thursday 9 February 2012

IndieDB Genre & Theme Popularity February 2012: Part 3

On the 1st of this month (February) I spent some time collecting data from the IndieDB website, and created a few graphs from the data. This is Part 3 of 3 in the series.

Do let me know in the comments box below if you find the results helpful, for example, when trying to choose a genre or theme for your next game. If there are specific combinations of Genre and Theme you would like to find out about in more detail, leave me a comment and I will check it out for another post.

Popularity Based on Average Number of Views per Games Listed.

[Average number of views per game: 12,880]

As you can see from the graph, averaging out the number of views over number of games listed has really changed up the results.

Popularity of Genres on IndieDB [based on average number of views per game]:

1. RPG [16,316]
2. Simulation [15,325]
3. Adventure [14,421]
4. Strategy [13,907]
5. Action [13,362]

--[Average]--

6. Driving [8,988]
7. MMO [8,189]
8. Puzzle [4,835]
9. Sport [2,103]

Popularity of Themes on IndieDB [based on average number of views per game]:

1. Fighter [27,435]
2. Medieval [27,228]
3. Western [19,937]
4. War [19,196]
5. Anime [18,216]
6. Fantasy [16,155]
7. Realism [15,501]
8. Sci-Fi [13,174]

--[Average]--

9. Horror [11,808]
10. Movie [9,736]
11. Antiquity [8,494]
12. Comedy [7,277]
13. History [7,214]
14. Politics [6,603]
15. Nature [6,376]
16. Various [5,494]
17. Comic [4,850]
18. Sport [3,451]

Top 5 Most Popular Combos:

1. Medieval RPG [72,293]
2. Horror Driving [65,269]
3. Fighter Adventure [52,459]
4. Realism Strategy [42,714]
5. Anime Action [37,146]


IndieDB Genre & Theme Popularity February 2012: Part 2

On the 1st of this month (February) I spent some time collecting data from the IndieDB website, and created a few graphs from the data. This is Part 2 of 3 in the series.

Do let me know in the comments box below if you find the results helpful, for example, when trying to choose a genre or theme for your next game. If there are specific combinations of Genre and Theme you would like to find out about in more detail, leave me a comment and I will check it out for another post.

Popularity Based on the Total Number of Views.

[Note: Zero views is a result of zero games being listed rather than a lack of interest from those searching.]

Popularity of Genres on IndieDB [based on number of views]:

1. Action [16,569,687]
2. Adventure [11,580,708]
3. Strategy [5,076,047]
4. RPG [4,699,093]
5. Simulation [2,237,476]
6. Puzzle [1,373,202]
7. MMO [835,288]
8. Driving [638,196]
9. Sport [100,947]

Popularity of Themes on IndieDB [based on number of views]:

1. Sci-Fi [12,199,964]
2. Fantasy [8,950,136]
3. War [4,300,076]
4. Horror [3,140,973]
5. Fighter [2,551,495]
6. Medieval [2,314,380]
7. Realism [2,170,226]
8. Various [1,620,951]
9. Anime [1,439,084]
10. Comic [1,328,901]
11. Comedy [1,288,123]
12. Western [498,430]
13. Nature [427,250]
14. History [281,352]
15. Politics [204,701]
16. Antiquity [161,394]
17. Sport [155,315]
18. Movie [77,893]

Most popular combo: Fantasy themed, Adventure genre.
[Closely followed by: Sci-Fi themed, Action genre.]



IndieDB Genre & Theme Popularity February 2012: Part 1

On the 1st of this month (February) I spent some time collecting data from the IndieDB website, and created a few graphs from the data. This is Part 1 of 3 in the series.

Do let me know in the comments box below if you find the results helpful, for example, when trying to choose a genre or theme for your next game. If there are specific combinations of Genre and Theme you would like to find out about in more detail, leave me a comment and I will check it out for another post.

Popularity Based on Total Number of Games Listed.


Popularity of Genres on IndieDB [based on number of games listed]:

1. Action [1240]
2. Adventure [803]
3. Strategy [365]
4. RPG [288]
5. Puzzle [284]
6. Simulation [146]
7. MMO [102]
8. Driving [71]
9. Sport [48]

Popularity of Themes on IndieDB [based on number of games listed]:

1. Sci-Fi [926]
2. Fantasy [554]
3. Various [295]
4. Comic [274]
5. Horror [266]
6. War [224]
7. Comedy [177]
8. Realism [140]
9. Fighter [93]
10. Medieval [85]
11. Anime [79]
12. Nature [67]
13. Sport [45]
14. History [39]
15. Politics [31]
16. Western [25]
17. Antiquity [19]
18. Movie [8]

Most popular combo: Sci-Fi themed, Action genre.

Thursday 2 February 2012

Making a Race Car Game in Unity3D

I've started work on a racing game to get myself to learn Blender, GIMP, and brush up on Unity3D. Here's the proposal document I wrote to myself:

Fancy looking document to help Developer Me persuade Publisher Me...

So far I've been following the Unity Car Tutorial for an "arcade-style race car set-up" and have gotten through section 1. I took it for a test drive and it definitely needs some tweaking, which is where the second section comes into it.

I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to make my own car after going through only this, so I'll have to have a look around to figure out what all different parts of the Car Game Object are meant to be.

EDIT: I found an even better tutorial for making a really basic car from scratch.